Fake Altar

[Cyberpunker]

Fake Altar 
Artifact-Rare

When any nonartifact creature is sacrificed you may pay  . If you do, return it to play tapped under your control.

The would be victim is always grateful to his savior for the trap door

[chrissss]

nice card. I like it a lot.

good sideboard vs edicts, and it would combo well.

[Wagner]

Nice but way overpowered. Just on the top of my head, Carrion Feeder and Mogg Fanatic and Blood Pet would be degenerate.

Enduring Renewal cost 4 and did something similar but had major drawbacks.

It need at least some black mana into it, either for the casting cost or make it an activated ability

Fake Alter
Artifact

B : The next time a nonartifact creature is sacrificed, return it to play under your control after it hits the graveyard.

[Cyberpunker]

Point taken, but does it have to be black? I think colorless would be fine.

[Darkenslight]

If it's colorless, then the cost needs to be  , in order to avoid degenerate combos; this way, it only combos witha very small set of cards.

[Anusien]

2/1 is undercosted.  Is it intentional that this thing comboes with Ashnod's Altar?  If so, the cost definitely needs to go up to 3.

[Wagner]

Point taken, but does it have to be black? I think colorless would be fine.

Doesn't NEED to be black, but its much more flavorful. Black is the color to make sacrifices and black is the color to do nasty tricks like faking the death of something or somehow ressurecting it (which is what the card does).

However put, it needs an activation cost, infinite mana (Blood Pet, Tinder Wall, Skirk Prospector, Wild Cantor) or damage (Fanatic, Carrion Feeder, Sledder), draw (Hapless Researcher), life (Children of Korlis) and soft-hard lock (Spiketail Hatchling, Cursecatcher) for 3-4 mana is ridiculous.

Edit: Any of the Pirates that ask you to sacrifice stuff will clear your opponent's entire board.

[Anusien]

I like 3/1 with an option on 4/1 if it proves too degenerate.  I'd also limit it to creatures you control.

[chrissss]

What about

"When an effect controlled by an opponent causes you to sacrifice a creature, you may pay 1 and put it into play tapped"

something like this, to avoid silly combos. atm its too good. this plus ravenous baloth means 16 OR 20 life bby round 5 at worst.

[jro]

I think you meant to call this card "Fake Altar".

If this card doesn't have "an effect an opponent controls" as a condition, the only use it will have is to fuel degenerate combos.  Tinder Wall, Basal Sliver, Morgue Toad, Blood Vassal and Verdant Eidolon all generate infinite mana with this otherwise.  As originally worded, it also lets you steal opponent's creatures when they are sacrificed.

Also, the templating as written is just plain wrong.  I doubt there's any way to make this work as a replacement effect (which is how it's worded now).  Additionally, "hits the graveyard" is not official Magic-speak.  Which is too bad-- this card would make an awesome combo with:

Mogg Domeburner
1R
Creature - Goblin
Sac this dude: Mogg Domeburner goes to the dome for 3.
1/1

[Anusien]

How often is this different from Cauldron of Souls?

[Cyberpunker]

Points all taken

And as for increasing the casting cost to  , it would really make this too crappy for the decks that need it. Right now the broken part of it is that it is colorless mana and so easily comboed out with Tinder Wall, Ashnod's alter etc. If we make it  , we can stop all the possible infinite combos. Ravenous Baloth and Spiketail Hatchling become white life gain and white Force Spikes. Pretty nice considering that  is still very weak due to a lack of a powerful engine. Mogg Fanatic becomes  lava darts.

It is in my opinion that if a player wants to build a  deck then he/she deserves some sort of powerful engine to make it competitive. And really it is not unbeatable if they have that soft lock on you.

If they have  like fish, they have to pay  to have that soft lock, and it is not that bad since they only really run 4 Tundras max. And anymore white would weaken Fish.

Finally if anyone in Vintage has successfully casted both Ravenous Baloth  and Fake Altar, than they deserve to gain 8 life or so.

And Cauldron of Souls is persist, meaning that you are actually more limited to how many times you get the creature back. AND it costs too much.

White now has 8 Swords and an Engine yay!

And as for  being more fitting, I think that  is associated with mercy and saving of a life and so is a bit more fitting. But it can be  too.

So this now is not as broken as before and still provides a good engine at a reliable speed.

[Wagner]

Probably nitpicking, but white loves artifacts, I think you could allow them in.

[jro]

Compared to Sigil of the New Dawn this is dramatically undercosted and abusable.  Same when compared to Enduring Renewal.  There is no deck that "needs" this card.  If you're just looking to make an abusable combo engine for Vintage, than have at it: make it cost and whatever else you'd like.  But if you want to make it a card that might conceivably have passed through Wizards R&D, then it's going to have to be considerably revised.  In particular:

It still works on your opponent's creatures.  Am I really supposed to be able to pay to steal my opponent's Mogg Fanatic?  This card would NEVER be printed this way.

Also, since this is now only any good in white decks, why make it cost rather than or whatever?  And it should still cost more.  As currently worded, something around would be the only way this would get printed, and I don't think you'd want that.

[chrissss]

jro makes good points. for that strong ability,  and  isn´t expensive enough. It should cost way more.

[Cyberpunker]

Compared to Sigil of the New Dawn this is dramatically undercosted and abusable.  Same when compared to Enduring Renewal.  There is no deck that "needs" this card.  If you're just looking to make an abusable combo engine for Vintage, than have at it: make it cost and whatever else you'd like.  But if you want to make it a card that might conceivably have passed through Wizards R&D, then it's going to have to be considerably revised.  In particular:

It still works on your opponent's creatures.  Am I really supposed to be able to pay to steal my opponent's Mogg Fanatic?  This card would NEVER be printed this way.

Also, since this is now only any good in white decks, why make it cost rather than or whatever?  And it should still cost more.  As currently worded, something around would be the only way this would get printed, and I don't think you'd want that.

I don't think that this card is THAT abusable. In fact I realy do not see anyone dominating with this card. The purpose of this card was for it to serve as an engine of some sorts for  . But you are right,  would make it less abusable than  so that only decks with enough and consistent  mana can take full advantage of it I guess.

And whether there is a deck that needs this card is irrelevant. I'm sure I can make one if I had this card. And it does cost  to activate and so cannot be abused that easily as a combo piece. I do not see this as impossible to pass the Wizards R & D now that I have changed the mana cost to 


And yes  for stealing an opponent's Mogg Fanatic. But you have to pay  again to get it back once you have saced it. You cannot combo off it and you will only on occasion be able to steal a Mogg Fanatic or a Tinder Wall etc. And is it really that broken if you do? You will realistically only get about 2 or 3 damage off the stolen creature and an extra blocker. Again not to mention that it comes into play tapped and so cannot be utilized immediatley as a blocker. Not that broken for  and  if you ask me.

Making it  would be still acceptable. But making it less playable as a result.  would ensure both playability and prevent brokenness because again no deck that does not run  enough  can consistantly utilize this card.

It sounds like it may be actually a good balance for Vintage. orienated decks can potentially be evenly matched up against  or  Workshop or Dark Ritual orientated decks if they can manage to build a good list.